Paf and Facebook launch Swiss pilot to block unlicensed gambling ads

Paf is running a pilot with Facebook in Switzerland to prevent unlicensed gambling operators and their affiliates from reaching Swiss players via the social network. The Åland-based operator announced the project at the SBC Summit in Lisbon and said the pilot should start next week; Paf will supply licence documents and site URLs so Facebook can better separate regulated operators from unlicensed ones.

What Paf is supplying to Facebook in the Switzerland pilot

Paf will provide Facebook with concrete verification material: gambling licence documentation and the URLs of operator websites and affiliate pages. The data set covers both operators and their affiliate partners. Paf’s goal is to let Facebook’s platform-side controls distinguish regulated market participants from offshore or otherwise unlicensed actors.

Jesper Eliasson, Paf’s chief commercial officer for business development, described the inputs as practical rather than technical: the pilot relies on exchanging licence-related documents and lists of domain names. Paf said the work will not require significant capital outlay; Eliasson characterised the company’s contribution as time and conversations.

Why Switzerland and why now

Switzerland is a material market for Paf. The company acts as a technology and commercial partner to Grand Casino Luzern, whose mycasino.ch brand launched in 2019. Paf said mycasino.ch now generates annual revenues of more than €100,000,000 and holds a little over 30% of the Swiss online gambling market.

Paf intends the Swiss pilot to be a testbed. The operator will assess whether the approach is scalable and can later be adapted to other European markets. Eliasson framed the choice of Switzerland as pragmatic: it is a sizeable regulated market where Paf has an operational stake through mycasino.ch and an existing partnership with Grand Casino Luzern.

The problem Paf wants to solve: displacement and platform evasion

Eliasson told attendees at SBC Summit that offshore operators can currently circumvent social-platform advertising controls. Different national licensing regimes across Europe make it difficult for platforms and advertisers to know whether a gambling operator has the right to market in a specific jurisdiction. That ambiguity, Paf says, enables unlicensed operators and affiliate networks to access customers on platforms where regulated competitors pay licence fees and implement responsible‑gambling measures.

"I do not want someone who has not paid for a licence or who does not implement responsible‑gaming measures to take market share from us," Jesper Eliasson said.

Paf argues this is not only a regulatory or ethical issue but a commercial one: unlicensed operators are not bearing the same compliance costs that legitimate operators do.

How the pilot fits with regulator and industry efforts

Paf said it aims to bring the Swiss gambling regulator into the pilot so that Facebook, the regulator and licensed operators can work within a shared model where licence data informs ad moderation. The company believes a three‑way approach will make enforcement more defensible and help platforms apply country‑specific rules.

The pilot sits alongside other industry attempts to pressure large platforms on illegal gambling advertising. The Netherlands trade body VNLOK has taken Meta to court over alleged illegal gambling ads on Facebook and Instagram after years of dialogue failed to resolve the issue. Paf chose a different tack: rather than litigate, it is trying to build a direct data‑sharing arrangement with Facebook.

Limits, risks and the missing guarantees

Paf acknowledges the pilot is experimental and that success is not guaranteed. Eliasson said the company cannot promise an outcome; the investment is limited and the work will primarily involve coordinating data and procedures. The pilot also depends on the platform’s ability to operationalise licence checks against its advertising controls, and on the regulator’s willingness to participate.

Beyond technical implementation, other practical obstacles remain. European markets have divergent licensing regimes and advertising rules. That heterogeneity complicates any attempt to replicate a Swiss model elsewhere, because what counts as valid licence evidence in one jurisdiction may not map cleanly to another.

Implications for operators, affiliates and platforms

If the pilot proves effective it could shift how platforms police gambling advertising and create a template for combining regulator-verified licence data with platform ad controls. For regulated operators, the mechanism promises a way to reduce displacement to offshore sites. Affiliates and smaller advertising partners could face faster detection if their domains are listed alongside operator sites.

For platform vendors and ad‑policy teams, the pilot underlines a growing expectation from licensed operators that platforms hold and use structured licence data as part of ad‑control workflows. Paf said it spends a meaningful amount acquiring customers through Facebook and believes Meta has an aligned incentive to clear illegal operators from its services.

What to watch next

The pilot’s near-term milestones are the technical exchange of licence documents and URL lists, the platform’s implementation of matching rules, and whether the Swiss regulator joins the project. Paf will evaluate scalability once the Swiss testbed produces results. The industry will monitor whether the pilot influences ongoing litigation trends and whether it prompts similar arrangements in other regulated markets.

Paf cited prior calls for tighter information sharing between regulators and licensed operators to combat illegal marketing on digital platforms. If the Swiss experiment succeeds under Paf’s leadership, it could become a model for coordinated enforcement across other European jurisdictions.

Related coverage

Readers interested in regulatory responses and platform policy may find related reporting on platform advertising controls under regulation and industry collaboration under b2b.